


Bike Messenger

by Lady Logos (Logoht)



Category: Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz
Genre: Angst, Drabble, Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-27
Updated: 2014-10-27
Packaged: 2018-02-22 19:53:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2519789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Logoht/pseuds/Lady%20Logos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex's life is never easy, how much could one side job actually offer?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bike Messenger

**Author's Note:**

> One of my stories that I originally posted on FF.net. Again I have modified this a bit, fixed some mistakes and such. This will truly be a one shot and nothing will change that. In any case, enjoy!

When he had taken a job as a bike messenger, he had done it for two reasons. To get a little pocket money for himself and to keep himself in shape. After all if you drive in the city - say 60km per day, you were going to be in an awesome shape after a while. And truly, while Alex wasn't the most normal of teenage boys, the idea of having some muscles was attractive, especially to lure in girls.

After his uncle Ian had died, he used his work to get everything out of his head. It helped to drive around and see the city in a new perspective and was surprisingly therapeutic. Just to feel the wind in your hair and feel your blood pumping, feeling alive. Then came the missions and he got injured a lot. Somehow he didn't have as much time as before, to do his side job as much as he wanted, but luckily he had a very understanding boss, who actually had been in SAS himself. In the Alps he had been with K-Unit and helped him. So he knew pretty much why he sometimes didn't come to work.

After Ash, Yassen and many others had died and he had taken a little time off from MI6 and he had been sniped. After that they had deported Jack and that's how they were in the situation of today.

"Alex, we want to you to do something for us." Jones said - like so many times before. While the woman was at times nice, she and her mint candies at times truly annoyed Alex. It was a facade of caring rather than true caring on her part.

"No. Absolutely not. You have used me, now you have deported Jack and she was the last connection I had to normal life and you know it. I want to be a normal kid." Alex argued back.

"Now, you don't see Alex. If you are not working for us, we are going to stop paying your bills for the house. You are welcome to try living your own for the time being. Come to us when you have understood that it's simply not going to happen. You cannot live without us." Blunt said. The man and his tea was equally infuriating, as his tendency to be overly controlling. Alex had decided long a go that the man - Blunt - was way over his head if he expected Alex just to conform to the slot he had been placed. He wasn't a child any longer, if he had ever truly been. These were his last moments to try and be one and he was damned if he allowed MI6 and the two heads to actually take it from him.

Alex left the office without a word. He had so many things to do and think. He went home and immediately used the laptop that Smithers had gifted him with. He needed to find every single possible thing that could give him some sort of income - He was not going to be bested by MI6 in this matter. After all this was something that defined his future. If he couldn't handle himself then he would be forever with MI6. He would not be able to live.

He briefly entertained two thoughts. Hacking to the MI6 core system and finding out if Yassen was really dead - That wouldn't help him. The elusive russian owed him absolutely nothing, and even though he could possibly help him, it would defeat the purpose of this game.

The second though spanned from Yassen. Maybe he could be an assassin. But then again, he wouldn't know where to start. Also if he went on a killing spree MI6 would surely detain him faster that he could say innocent. He also didn't had it in him. He decided that if absolutely nothing else worked then then he would go along that path. For he knew that if things really were that severe as to force him to go that path, the game and his life with it, was already long lost anyway.

He found a few things that could help grow his bank account. He could apply for a scholarship but with his school record - unless he could fix that very quickly, it would be absolutely pointless for him to apply for one. Then there was the matter of being an orphan. He hacked to the government database to see if any of the deceased had left him with anything. And like he had expected, they had. The only problem was that if he wasn't emancipated he wouldn't be able to access the money, until he was 21.

Then again even that was doomed to fail, he was too young and even though he could hack some things this wouldn't go along well. His files were guarded better than anything he had ever seen from the government, therefore emancipation was out of the question.

Being an orphan on the other hand gave him other opportunities. He could apply for an orphan support. He quickly calculated how much that would be in a month. They would give him, at least from the last six months retroactive support. He could get 300 pounds a month, which would make six months 1800 pounds, plus this month's support, which would be just enough to pay for the heating of the house and the basic bills. Electricity, food and other things. Well he needed to eat less, spend less in general and work hard as bike messenger. He was extremely lucky that the house itself and the land it stood on, had already been paid long a go by Ian. 

So he got 300 of the orphan support and the pay from his primary job was about 400 pounds in a month with no hard work, if he worked harder than that, then he could get at least 600 to 800 pounds from that. So he needed a weekend evening job.

He quickly continued surfing around the internet for various jobs and if any would take him. He had after all just turned 15. Was he any good with children? Yes if he had to. He applied for all the babysitting jobs he could find close to him. He hoped that somehow he'd manage.  
  


* * *

 

After a month of two jobs, school and everything associated with life. Paying bills and working a little bit more to get some food under his belt, he looked like he had seen better days in his life. Tom had been getting worried. And that was just it. Alex looked horrible. He had lost weight, had dark shadows under his eyes and looked tired. He had caught up on school and that was mostly the reason for those changes. He studied at night. He could sleep much. Even earlier, before anything, he was a bit insomniac, now he used this decease for his own gain and studied all the time he couldn't sleep. His teachers had once again started praising him for his apparent success and he was back at the top 5 pupils of his school.

"Alex man - you look terrible - what are you doing to yourself?" Tom had asked once again. His best friend had started to be rather pushy about his state of affairs.. And looks for that matter. Clearly Tom was worried and when even he, another teenagers, starts to get worried, other people might as well.

"Look, Come to my place tonight at say.. 8PM I should be off from work about that time and we'll talk okay?"

"Whatever you say.." Tom said back to him, slightly suspicious. Alex hadn't been very open about things lately, while usually he shared quite a bit about his life, even though it placed all of them in danger. Tomo still appreciated his friend's forwardness and therefore him being so closed off and looking like he was already half way to the grave, did more than just worried him.

 

* * *

 

 

That evening Alex had met with Tom and had told him about the circumstance and how things were with MI6. He had been surprisingly understanding and had offered him anything he wanted. He could always come to Tom's place and have dinner there. If he didn't mind his parents going off again for no reason. They were in the middle of a very hard divorce and were fighting hourly.

Alex had had a lot of time to himself now that he had caught schoolwork. But the situation wasn't still great. He had to put limits to almost everything he did. He bicycled to the school - like he had always done. After that he bicycled to work and from there to home. He didn't have a metro card or anything. If he wanted to go somewhere he did it by bicycling. He just didn't have the extra money for anything. He hadn't bought new clothes and had to hunt for cheaper food and hygiene things.

On the plus side. Now that he was all caught of school work he had taken up cleaning and cooking in advance. He had the freezer full of food and so didn't had to buy anything but the absolute necessities like tea, coffee, milk and so on.

He had been saving for his school books. A new period was coming up and he needed some new books, and they weren't cheap. Earlier when Jack was still there and he had allowance from MI6 and so on, it wasn't hard for him to get everything top quality. Now he had to find used books and things for himself just so that he could afford to pay for everything else. Nowadays he didn't call to others. He waited that someone called him. Unless he had something very important to say.

Being a bike messenger had other advantages though. He knew where things were cheap, he had found hundreds of short-cuts in the city and knew it like his own pockets. If anything was to happen he would know it and could escape efficiently if necessary. Now he also had the stamina and muscles to escape. If he wanted, he could go 40km/h with his bike without a very bad effort (1). But he hoped that those skills would never be needed.

After two months of the schedule he had figured out to himself he had used most of his previous savings and thought of starting to save more. It would be only a month and then summer holidays would start, which would give him the opportunity to do more work and save for next year so that maybe he'd have enough money, so he wouldn't have to work as much.

He looked a little bit worse than before. He had taken Karate and football practice up again. Now that he had been in school for two months straight and a little more, the coach had been only too happy to get him back on to the team. The coach also said that if he still had a god performance and attendance record at the end of the year, he would been made the captain of the football team for the next year.

Karate was paid for him for the next two years. Ian had paid it for three years just before he died. In the dojo he was the star pupil and his sensei liked him immensely. He took the lessons from Malagosto to hearth. You could never practice enough. And so He had Karate 3 evening in the week, football 2 evenings and everything should have been fine in his world.

But that wasn't the case. He thought that either the stress was getting to him. After all he didn't really have much time to relax, he slept little and even that sleep was riddled with nightmares and memories from the past. He knew how much good food could do to you, but even that didn't work miracles. He was nowadays always tired. He simply had too much to do and not enough energy to even relax.

He went to school, quickly came home, ate and changed clothes, went to work then came back to home again and ate, showered, did his homework and sleep if he could and repeat.

On weekends his days were like this: work, home, work, home and sleep. And of course karate and football practice. Sometimes it felt like too much, but he wasn't going to give up his freedom.

 

* * *

 

 

It was now almost 4 months since the episode with MI6. Alex had a basic package delivery. To the not so nice area of Chelsea. He got the package dropped of, got the signature and all. It wasn't bad. He was going to cycle back to the HQ to get at least one more package before he would leave, his shift ending. Most of the clients wanted their packages during office hours, and most of their clients were in fact companies and therefore it was easier for him to work during that time. Private clients wanted theirs after office hours, but still before 8PM usually.

He got to the HQ unharmed. Being a bike messenger had it's bad points as well. Most of them had been injured by cars and accidents. It was a dangerous job. He got a new package from the HQ, he needed to deliver it to The Cadogan Hotel which was a mile away from Chelsea.

At the hotel he went to the receptionist and said politely:

"Excuse me. I have a delivery to Mr. Anton Lutrova."

"Oh. I'll check his information for you, wait a minute please." The receptionist that was a young woman, maybe on her twenties, and soon she informed him; "Yes, He's in the room number 314. Third floor on the right." The receptionist whose name was Anna which he read from her identification plate.

"Thank you." Alex said and took the elevator to the third floor.

It took him a while to find room 314, but he managed it. He knocked to the door and it was almost immediately answered.

On the doorway stood a blond haired, about 35 year old male with striking blue/grey eyes and toned physique. He had strong features and was wearing black button-up shirt and black slacks.

"Hello little Alex."

 

* * *

 

 

They were sitting, drinking coffee and talking about things that had came and passed. It was strange in a way how two people, so different and so alike could in one moment be killing each other and the next talking over coffee.. Even though their professions alone would have made them enemies, after all it was a rare moment where a spy and an assassin from opposing organizations could have coffee like old friends.

"You were supposed to be dead." Alex dead panned.

"So were you. I heard that Scorpia sniper hit you."

"Your informant hasn't been up to it's par lately then. Aren't you the best assassin of the world? You should know."

"Yes well.. I have noticed many holes in my information network lately. Some of my most important informants have been killed by MI6 among others. But I try to follow whats happening to the best of my abilities, without starting to spy myself." Yassen said in a somewhat comical tone.

"You look well.. How did you survive?" Alex asked. He was naturally curious. He respected the man. in their world second chances where something far away and usually they didn't happen. You had one chance and if that failed usually it led to your elimination.

"The paramedics got me. They carted me to a public hospital. I slipped into a coma and then just left one night after waking up and finding myself mostly healed. There wasn't any security. I hadn't had any form of identification with me and no weapons of any kind were found on my person. When I heard that I had been proclaimed dead, I of course took the chance. I wanted to retire. And so I did." Yassen said.

"Oh. Well good for you." Alex said. Suddenly he was starting to feel somewhat tired which wasn't anything new. He still had to go once back to HQ and then have a quick bite of food and go to his other job. The Andersons were a nice lot, they had a three year old daughter named Lucy and a five year old boy named Connor. They were okay to babysit as they most often just played and Alex read them stories and got some food done for them and then put them into bed.

"You yourself on the other hand are not looking good, explain." Yassen ordered. It was exactly his style to order. He had this commanding presence and clearly was used to being obeyed as well. If Alex remembered right, Yassen had actually been an instructor for a brief time on Malagosto.

"What? Oh.. Well.. There was this thing. I didn't want to work for MI6, so they deported Jack and took all of their monetary support away from me. They count on it, that eventually I'll collapse from the strain and come begging at them for a second chance to do their dirty job. I have been doing two jobs, going to school, I have Karate three times a week and football practice two times a week. It just sometimes feels hard. Also my.. Well, old injuries on the.. job, don't really react well on the strain." Alex explained. He had no idea why he was so open to the assassin, however there was this.. Trust between them, he thought. And he knew, especially now that Yassen was retired, that he wouldn't harm him.

"Don't you have any connections, so that you could get some money and so fourth from them?" Yassen asked. The older man was clearly bewildered. Even he, who had been proclaimed dead, had still some contacts left and had access to several hidden accounts and such. It made him wonder, why hadn't Alex done anything similar in the past. The teenager after all was not stupid. Perhaps he hadn't expected a betrayal from the MI6.

"Well my old Unit probably hates me, And they are in Iraq so they really can't help. Ben is too much of a.. well patriot to do anything about the situation anyway. He knows, and he knows also that he is unable to do anything, so he won't even try. I can't call Jack for help. It wouldn't be right for her. Tom.. Has been helping me some times but he's just a teenager and his parents are going trough a tough divorce, so he can't help me that much." Alex said. He was ashamed to admit that he was mostly responsible for his own state, yet at the same time he was proud that he had managed as long as he had. Yassen's offer however took him off guard.

"I can support you partly if you want to. If not at least let me take a look of your injuries. I know that I am a more competent medic than what you are." Yassen said, the offer surprisingly sincere.

"Fine." Alex said simply and begun to strip. On his chest stood the bullet wound, there were criss-crossing scars around it and over it for a good measure. His stomach looked like someone had tried to gut him some time back. His back was even more scarred than his front. There were whip marks where the General had hit him.. It was not a nice sight.

"Where does it hurt?" Yassen asked.

In the end, he went back to MI6.. To set them straight. Yassen had taken his guardianship to himself. He had a new identity and MI6 didn't have any DNA or prints to actually prove that it had been him.

With Ben's help they had gotten everything quite well done and bike messenger was still Alex's job. He had something to be thankful of. He, now because of this side job of his, had a guardian who actually cared for him and so in the end, he was alright. Everything was alright.

**Author's Note:**

> (1) I have read some interviews and so forth, so I know this is accurate speed. It's very possible to go this fast, and even more so :D
> 
> Editing this took me over an hour, however I'm rather happy with the end result :)


End file.
